Adoption Support

This group is for adoption support on all sides. We welcome Adoptive Parents,...
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This group is for adoption support on all sides. We welcome Adoptive Parents, Potential Adoptive Parents, Birth Parents, Potential Birth Parents, Adoptees, anyone involved in adoption. We are a community that finds education and support invaluable!
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Welcome to the Adoptive Families group! This group was created to be a welcoming, supportive environment for all members of the adoption triad. We expect all members to be supportive and respectful of each other, and will delete comments that guide this group away from the supportive environment we are hoping to foster here.

Also, if you find a story or person questionable, practice DER...Don't Engage, Report! Report the profile and posts to the community so they can check it out :). We don't want any of our members to get in trouble. Its considered a personal attack to call a poster "troll", so please just report.

In order to foster a community of support, we are adding a supplemental rule. Any post that negatively generalizes Potential Adoptive Parents, Adoptive Parents, Adoptees, Expectant Parents, or Birth Parents will be considered a disruption to our community and deleted.

For example:

Violation: All birth parents are too controlling!
Not a vio: My birth parents are too controlling

Violation: Potential adoptive Parents are so desperate!
Not a vio: I contacted an adoptive family, and they just seemed so desperate!

Violation: Adoptive parents are liars!
Not a vio: I made an adoption agreement with the adoptive parents and they changed their mind. Why did they lie?

This list is NOT all inclusive, so if you have any questions, please let us know!

Now, for the fun stuff. Baby Center Guidelines! Please remember to read these so you understand exactly what is and is not a vio.

The Rules
In order to keep this a place where differences in philosophies, beliefs,
opinions, and parenting styles are welcomed please help us by following these simple rules.
1. Personal attacks are unacceptable.
Personal attacks are postings, photos, journals, comments, or other content that insult, demean, embarrass or humiliate another member of our community or group of members of our community based upon her or their character, decisions, personal choices or beliefs.
Personal attack: I think you are a racist.
Not a personal attack: I think your comments and actions are racist.

Personal attack: The members of the Advanced Toddlers group are self-deluded crazies.
Not a personal attack: I was reading the Advanced Toddler group and I don't understand the desire to focus on baby milestones.

2. Hate-speech is not permitted.
Hate speech is words or actions which ridicule, degrade, harass, insult or intimidate a person or group of people based upon their race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, class, or mental capacity.

Hate speech: All black people are lazy and stupid.
Not hate speech: My brother believes the stereotype that all black people are lazy and stupid, but I think he's wrong.

Hate speech: Fat people are disgusting, I can't even look at them eat.
Not hate speech: I worry about the health and wellness of people with morbid obesity when I see their nutrition choices in restaurants.

3. Do not deliberately disrupt the community.
A number of different types of activity may be judged as deliberately disrupting the community. Please note that the examples below are not binding or exhaustive, but are meant as a guide. By participating in our community you are agreeing to abide by the spirit and letter of our guidelines, and to submit to their interpretation and enforcement by our staff.
1. Using an alternate screen name to circumvent the
community rules. Members who use alternate or secondary '
screen names to violate our rules may be banned immediately
without recourse.
2. Using journals to circumvent Group rules. If a Group
Owner has deemed a topic of discussion inappropriate for a
Group, do not use your public journal to continue the issue.
3. Using profane or obscene language or variations of such in
the titles of discussions on public groups or the titles of public
journals. We don't want to display bad words on the homepage
or other feeds. If you use profane language in these areas your
titles may be edited or your post deleted.
******4. Soliciting for adoptable children or an adoptive
family. Adopting a child is a wonderful way to add to a family.
However, adoption solicitation is not allowed on BabyCenter in
any area, public or private. There are many safe and reputable
places to make arrangements for adoption; however,
BabyCenter is not designed to be that sort of resource.******
5. We do not allow our community to be used for marketing,
to perform market research, or to solicit information or
interviews for publication without permission.
6. Duplicate messages posted across the site that are
deemed irrelevant to the group or community may be
considered a disruption.

4. Bullying or harassment will not be tolerated.

5. Illegal activity is not allowed on the site.

Copyright at BabyCenter
Our Terms of Use state: You are responsible for all Content that you submit, post, or otherwise make available to or through the Web Site. By doing so, you represent and warrant to BabyCenter that such content is not confidential and that you have all necessary permission to submit, post and otherwise make available such Content.
However there are some uses of copyrighted materials which fall under "fair use" such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research . The US copyright office has a page devoted to Fair Use, which you may want to review before posting copyrighted materials and it states:
"The distinction between fair use and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission.
Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission."
Photos and images, even those taken or created by laypersons, are also subject to copyright protection. Furthermore, the people in photographs may have additional rights that prohibit display of the photos without permission. Therefore, no photos or images should be posted unless you have all necessary permission to do so.
BabyCenter addresses copyright infringement matters in accordance with its Terms of Use and related procedures.

6. No XXX.

7. Don't solicit or reveal personal information or private content

Interviews and research
We do not allow our community to be used to solicit information or interviews for publication without permission.

Staying safe online
Here are some basic tips for staying safe when you're online or getting together offline with
someone you met online.
1. Do not share personal information such as your full first
and last name, phone number,address on our boards or in
posts of any kind. Once you post such information, it's out
there and available for anyone to see. The Internet is a great
place to meet people and form new friendships. But some
people you meet online might be pretending to be something
other than what they really are or want to be friends with you
for the wrong reasons.
2. Do not reveal personal information about your friends or
other people.
3. It's great to make new friends on BabyCenter, but do not
meet in person with anyone you don't really know without
taking one of the following precautions:
a. bringing another person with you
b. arranging to meet in a public place
c. notifying another adult of your plans
******4. Don't respond to anyone or anything that makes
you feel uncomfortable. If you see or receive a harassing,
threatening, hostile, or inappropriate post, report it to us
immediately, using the "Report This" link that appears on all
member profiles, all group profiles notes, and every post.*****

8. No soliciting, advertising or marketing, except in designated spaces.

For more information, look here:
http://www.babycenter.com/community-help-guidelines

Please note: Any and all PANs sent to GOs regarding board business will be shared in the GO group. This will enable us to keep the board flowing and all be on the same page. Thanks!